Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Europe, Volume IV

123 H. F. Arthur Schoenfeld

The Acting Secretary of State to the United States Representative in Hungary (Schoenfeld)

[Extracts]²⁹

Washington, March 19, 1945.

My Dear Mr. Schoenfeld: With reference to your letter of appointment as United States Representative in Hungary,³⁰ there is given below certain information and guidance which may be of use to you in connection with the assumption of your functions in Hungary:

1. The President has, as you know, approved the Department’s recommendation that you be given the personal rank of Minister. Your title will be “United States Representative in Hungary” and for administration purposes your Mission, when it is established in Budapest, will be designated as “The United States Mission, Budapest, Hungary”.

2. The Department should be informed as soon as possible after your arrival in Hungary regarding the communications facilities available and at as early a stage as possible arrangements should be made with the competent authorities for delivery to you of telegrams directed to the code address “AmRep, Budapest”.

3. During the armistice period the basic purpose of your mission will be to provide American political representation in Hungary. You will appreciate the need for reporting fully all developments of political significance, internally and externally, and of keeping the Department informed during this critical period of the major trends. Provision is being made for the inclusion in your staff of economic officers to assist you in reporting economic developments.

4. The Provisional National Government of Hungary, with which you will maintain informal relations, is now functioning at Debrecen, Hungary, although it is expected to move to Budapest in the near future. Meanwhile an advance group of your staff has proceeded to Debrecen with instructions to restrict its activities to questions of an administrative character which may arise there.

. . . . . . .

8. Your arrival in Hungary should immediately be made known to the appropriate Hungarian and Soviet authorities, as well as to your British colleague. You should make an informal call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and state the nature of your mission in Hungary, leaving with him a copy of your letter of appointment.³¹ You should follow the same procedure in calling on the President of the Allied Control Commission. You may also wish to call on the Chiefs of Mission in Hungary of neutral countries. You should explain on all these occasions the nature of your mission and make clear that your presence should not be construed as the opening of official diplomatic relations between the United States and Hungary.

9. Although you will not have diplomatic relations of a formal nature with the Provisional National Government of Hungary, it is expected that you will be afforded every facility for informal contact with that Government and with the Hungarian public and full freedom of movement to enable you to meet your responsibilities for the protection and care of American interests in Hungary, including the privilege of confidential communications. You will, as Chief of the United States Mission, be governed in your relations with other American officials by the clarification and interpretation of the President’s Executive Order No. 2128, April 13, 1942, issued by the White House on May 20, 1942, which states that “the Chief of the United States diplomatic mission in a foreign country is the officer of the United States in charge of that country under whose supervision are coordinated the activities there of all the official representatives of the United States”. The American delegation on the Allied Control Commission shall, in its exercise of those functions which concern matters affecting American foreign policy, be considered as an agency of this Government.

10. Although your Mission is to be established entirely independently of the Allied Control Commission and you are not a member of the American delegation on that Commission, the text of the above paragraph has been sent to the War and Navy Departments in outlining your responsibilities as the principal representative of the United States Government and as the coordinating authority of the activities in Hungary of all representatives of agencies of this Government in that country.

. . . . . . .

13. Specific instructions will be given to you separately regarding the manner and time of your taking over from the Swiss Legation in Hungary the protection of American interests (as well as any instructions which may be necessary with regard to the interests of other countries which were passed to the Swiss when our Mission was closed) and of your initiation of passport, visa, notarial and the other usual services. Please refer in this connection, in so far as it is applicable to Hungary, to Foreign Service Serial No. 188, dated June 9, 1944, regarding the re-opening of offices in liberated areas closed on account of the war.

I am glad to have this opportunity to wish you every success in the accomplishment of your Mission.

Sincerely yours,

Dean Acheson

29. Omitted paragraphs are concerned with administrative details and regulations.
30. On January 20, 1945, it was announced that H. F. Arthur Schoenfeld had been designated by the President as the United States representative in Hungary for the general protection of American interests.
31. In his telegram 14, May 16, 1945, from Budapest, Schoenfeld reported on his call on Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyöngyösi that same day. Schoenfeld had explained the nature of his mission, particularly the fact that his presence in Budapest did not constitute resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and Hungary. While stating that he had no information as to when diplomatic relations might be resumed, Schoenfeld emphasized to Gyöngyösi that American policy in Hungary was based upon a firm understanding with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom and that restoration of normal relations with Hungary was largely dependent upon the readiness of the Hungarian Government to cooperate within the framework of that understanding. (123 Schoenfeld H. F. Arthur)